Monday, 27 September 2010

So here we are again, Phoenix won't let me be anything but a cloud despite several log ins and Lindens own Viewer 2, well thats crashing! So far this week I cant really entertain a virtual life in any real sense so bollox to it for a while, until the technology sorts its @rse out. Hope you are having fun in there!

FYI, err no thats not me

From bad to worse, uninstalled Second Life and Phoenix to reload in the hope of solving the issues I have with both and now... Well Second Life wont install properly it keeps flashing up a bug which stops it downloading, and Phoenix. That is even worse it cant even locate the page that has the download "OOps try this" err oops bugger off. So looks like I am taking a sabbatical from the virtual world for some time as I just cannot be @rsed reloading and fecking about with upgraded tech that merely succeeds in fucking people over. Have fun see you all in world some time in the future, if you're all still there of course.

Friday, 17 September 2010

Flipping through various Second Lifeblogs I read about a cheap pair of pants available at 22769 for the very resonable price of Ten Lindens, a throwaway bargain. The broad stripey design is classically sixties and lends itself beautifully to a mid-sixties mod look. So I wore mine with a sharp shirt from Shiki and my sixties styled Jeepers Creeps suede loafers. An easy to achieve sixties style for not much cash, the shirt and shoes can be obtained from elsewhere to keep the costs down.

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

As the sixties progressed mod style altered severely, the sharp Italian influenced suits were replaced by more pop art inspired clothing. Carnaby Street shifted from sharp mod styles to poptastic flamboyance, as is often seen in period pieces filmed to reflect the changing times. An iconic Carnaby Street styling is the military dress jacket, preferably a chic Guardsman in vibrant red, or flamboyant Hussars; as the mods moved away from their style origins their fashion became more pop. But in the virtual world we can accommodate this playful pop style in our NeoMods fashion house; so I was happy to throw on a great vibrant red Guardsman jacket bought from WW2 and WWII; Military UNIFORMS which fits the mould of this period beautifully. The jacket comes with a sharp prim white belt, military trousers and prim epaulets, there are also some prim NCO rank insignia and prim cuffs for the jacket. For anyone hoping to capture that swinging sixties Carnaby Street look but wishes to avoid flower powerUS inspired hippydom this is a good starting block

Next. some classic mod fashion from SubVersion. This beautiful brown suit is beautifully retro and suits the mod or NeoMod hoping to achieve that authentic '64 mod look. There is a host of variants with this suit, different shirts, waistcoats etc allowing you to tailor your individual look. But, I believe the basic brown suit with white shirt and brown tie is the best look for the virtual mod. The suit comes in a variety of colours, including a wonderful deep red [quick confession I wanted to buy the red but clicked the wrong icon duh! The brown is cool too though] which give plenty of scope for varying tastes: subdued grey, black or brown and wilder reds and blues.

Alongside the suits SubVersion also sell some fantastic sixties looking pea coats which are also available in a variety of colours, several complimentary to the suits they sell. Having bought myself a brown suit I opted to buy a brown coat. This too comes with several prim attachments: collar, cuffs, belt and a hat. Unfortunately the hat comes without hair and when I wore it my hair was removed so a little tweaking with your a\ttachment locations may be required to wear the hat; personally, I think the coat looks cooler without the hat. It blends magnificently with the trousers and shirt/tie combination from the brown suit and screams sixties style, very French I feel and so classically mod. To continue with the brown theme I hopped over to Action store to grab a tan pair of their ultra-sixties styled Chelsea Boots. The boots are scripted to alter size making fitting them a breeze and they look great with this low key sixties styling - conservative but sharp, the epitome of the original British mods.

The final offering is a chic black suit from a newly discovered store called Savile Row, there are several items in the store that have a retro sixties feel but to begin with I opted for this neat black suit labelled Berlin. It is not a traditionally mod design but it does have an authentic retro style and in the virtual world of NeoMods we strive to stretch the modernist fashion boundaries whilst staying within the limits imposed by our pop-culture roots, so no leather chaps and studs thank you! Double breasted jackets are not generally a feature of mod fashion but this germanic styled jacket oozed generic sioxties appeal so I succumbed and bought it; ok not strictly mod but like I said we can be flexible in the virtual world and its definitely sixties. So go check it out and the other items at Savile Row

Sunday, 12 September 2010

It was Soul Mods Friday with DJ Tabs, so I headed over and began grooving to some amazing great soul tunes. Sadly, there were issues occurring elsewhere in the house so I had to listen to some fantastic tunes while I was busy dealing with stuff in the house. This meant I was absent without Lindens, and Aston seized the moment to shove me into a cupboard. When the homeland issues were resolved I returned to Soul Mods where I found myself dancing away to silence but ... in a cupboard!

Next up I leaped on the OSR landmark and headed off to Boone's rezz day party, a lengthy all nighter with a host of DJs playing disco and funk. The club was jammed to the rafters with all the OSR regulars who were funking away in delirium; whereas, I was struggling with lag who sought solace in a corner. There were some fine tunes being played by DJ Divine and despite being too lagged to groove I was enjoying myself when phut! Crash, the new Phoenix viewer had kicked me out. Not such a Big Night after all ...

Cor blimey, these strange folk unable to teleport or change clothes in an instant, demanded I accompanied them to this place called a pub. There they made me quaff copious amounts of alcohol and called it a birthday bash, very strange and I had to walk home at the end. Strange times! Who knows what lies ahead in the week to come.

Saturday, 11 September 2010

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Despite the demise of the Emerald Second Life viewer I have not had to join the disgruntled mob of Viewer 2 users, I stumbled into the Imprudence viewer but that merely left me stranded on a barren rock unable to teleport. So I tried the Phoenix viewer and after some techy fiddling resolved its issues and logged in to enjoy a great night at Soul Mods.

Lupo was up on decks again and he treated us once more to some beautiful tunes. I spent much of the first thirty minutes deciding what shoes to wear ... vanity can be such a burden, choosing pants was quicker but also consumed some time. Then I drifted off listening and singing along to myself as Lupo played a series of sixties standards. Although we were few in number tonight everyone present had a fine time we chatted, oh yes indeed did we chat but I wont go there.. I talk enough bollox as it is. And, we laughed whilst enthusing about the music, after all its the music that drags us all to Dugi and Aston's place. Different places, different ages, different ideas but we share a love of the cool sounds that our friends play for us and it makes our virtual lives worth bothering with. Having just watched This is England '86,[with Woody veering from a sharp Weller look circa '93 to a demented Catweazle* dependent on his facial expression] I am feeling exceptionally mellow. I had a great time and once again can only recommend this club to all in the virtual world who are enthralled by sixties music, sixties culture or who just want to have a laugh with cool people while listening to some nice tunes, not everyone is as sadly obsessed as I am; so dont be scared, go on treat yourself and get your @rse there.

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Next to a sharp suit or stylish shoes a sweet hair cut is a crucial badge of mod membership. One of the joys of Second Life is that you can wear as many hair styles as you like in a single day transferring from long to short and vice-versa as the whim takes you. However finding the right mod or NeoMod hair style can prove difficult. But there are several classic styles available to furnish the bald pate of the aspirant virtual mod.

These four cuts are among my favourite modernist cuts in Second Life. Left to right they are: UncelWebbNick-Hair, the GLMenace, KMADD Hair DesignJude and finally AC* [aka CheerNo] Hair Emotional seamist. Each of these cuts has serious modernist credentials. The UncelWebb is my latest modernist hair style discovery and it has classic mod looks, tight cut with a sharp fringe, its a a very sixties mod look. The GLMenace is an old virtual cut, and a modernist staple for Second Life. Very reminiscent of Paul Weller's modernist cuts its been adopted by several sharp virtual mods. The KMADD cut is more of a NeoMod cut than the first two, its slightly longer styling is more of the length favoured by the casuals of the eighties but its still a fine modernist cut. Finally, the AC* cut is more of a generic mid sixties cut but it is still a great mod cut and worth wearing ... if you can find it, the latter three being quite old cuts. Despite these difficulties they are well worth seeking out to enhance your overall mod look.

Alternative cuts are available, and there are current options at this year's Hairfest. Bryce has three great mod stylings available for FREE in their stall at the Hairfest.There is a cut similar to the KMADD cut, but slightly shorter a more classically sixties. Next to that is the longer more NeoMod cut and underneath UncelWebb but in a different colour, the final cut is a lengthy crew cut a very mod revivalists style, often favoured by the 2-Tone ska mods of the eighties. The three free cuts from Bryce should be grabbed immediately by anyone looking to expand their folder of hair styles, anything for FREE should be appreciated and gleefully shovelled away for future use. I possess allseven of these cuts and quite happily swap between them convinced that each is a credible mod styling and helps to sustain the virtual NeoMod look that I strive to achieve in my Second Life avatar. I am sure other cuts exist, the grid is flooded with hair designers and I guess I will find others as I continue my virtual journey; but for now, these suffice.

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

There are few avatars wandering the streets of Second Life who do not possess a cool pair of shades stuffed away somewhere in there inventory. I have several pairs in mine but that's not prevented me from locating and purchasing more. Therefore when I saw a cool pair on a fashion blog post I immediately clicked the SURL and got myself over to the store to gab a pair for myself.

Iconic sixties styling the round lenses glasses with flip over shades are a classic design and I have often wished for a pair so when I saw this pair from Kumaki it took no time at all to decide I wanted a pair. The glasses are scripted for frame and lense colours, with all the other script function that has become the norm for sunglasses. Additionally it is scripted to raise or lower the flip lense, left and right flipping independently of the other. I love them they remind me of one of my favourite films Withnail and I, where I flips his lenses before revving off in the beaten up jag on their way to the Lake District. Well made, classically sixties, although I concede late sixties rather than the early sixties of the true mod. But, for NeoMods absorbing fashion to recreate modernist styling in the virtual world they could be viewed as an essential piece of eye wear.

While I was in the store I also noted they had a great selection of suits; however as I am being frugal with the lindens I opted just to snap the sales board rather than purchase some more suits. A feeble excuse but hey this ain't GQ is it? Anyway they had an avatar modelling the suits which have a degree of prim wear to give the suits a feeling of depth and fabric movement. They look cool and come in the sombre muted colours of the early mods. I may buy one at some point but if you are looking to get yourself a classy looking modernist suit or just feel the need to expand your mod fashion folder I encourage you to take a look.

Some of you may have noticed there has been a drop off in the regularity of posting on this blog, lots of blogs do this before eventually dropping off into the wilderness. However, I have no intention of taking this route its merely circumstances hat have dictated that less than daily posts get blogged nowadays. Primarily the scene has quietened down a little with only two clubs providing constant sixties and mod inspired tunes; secondly, I am not interested in spending thousands of lindens to flatter my ego and parade myself as a pseudo fashion writer. Lets face facts this is a tiny little blog read by about a dozen great people and I'm just a geezer who like sixties stylings and occasionally likes to have a laugh writing about it and point those with similar interested in the direction of some cool items. I also grab ideas from the cool chaps who frequent the clubs, its a game and I enjoy playing it, I'm not the fashion glossy reporter some hope to be. Finally, I have joked about it a couple of times in world but middle age is playing havoc with my eyes so sometimes I find it a struggle to stare at the screen, which obviously makes blogging quite difficult, its also why I often go quite in club chatting, resting the old peepers. So I have no intention of ending my blogging career but it may enter a period of dramatic slow down, although I will probably do a dozen posts now and render this musing post irrelevant, such is life. See you at the AAi tonight or Soul Mods Thursday.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Been a tad slow in the virtual world with not much happening beyond the standard nights at the AAi and Soul Mods; I have splashed a few lindens on some new stuff which undoubtedly I'll bore you with at some date but for now I thought I would add to the blog library of tunes, all found at the fantastic Derek's Daily 45 if you have not checked out his blog I urge you too and get downloading some vibrant soulful tunes.

So I figured I would upload a trio of current sounds from his blog, enjoy and who knows we might hear them at a virtual club some night soon.

Hope this triumvirate of cool put a smile on your face on a dull Monday morning, chill and stay cool.

Friday, 3 September 2010

The single biggest issue I have in my virtual life is that it is wholly reliant upon reliable technology and lets be frank technology is about as reliable as your local bus route. So tonight I'm already late at Soul Mods due to my rather foolhardy allegiance to the National football team but I log on teleport in with a rather sharp paisley shirt, to be met by Slate looking equally smooth in his paisley, great minds an' all that. Tabby is on the decks and playing some awesome tunes, I've set in a grooving dance animation and having fun chatting with everyone. Its the usual daft jokes mixed with appreciative yells to enthuse about the music. We're having fun. Lupo, cool modernism in motion turns up and the chat gets better as the tunes follow. I opt to tip, head up to the little cash icon to replenish my funds [15 lindens doesn't go far these days y'know] when bingo the screen goes black. I have a little message top left Second Life: Not Responding. But hey its still streaming so all isn't lost its like a radio station I can hear the tunes but cannot participate. I'll live with that there's only 10 minutes to go anyway, by the time I reboot everyone will have logged out and then virtuality delivers its coupe de grace and informs me I have been logged out but I can check my IMs. I hope there's one from technology saying sorry we fecked up. Catch you all on the flip side.

Other things happening this week. Thursday saw the Baron return in blistering form to Soul Mods and deliver a thunderous set full of Northern Soul gems. A great night for all in attendance as the Baron plucked some sweet tunes from his vast catalogue of records. A great night and you'd all do well to get your dancing feet along to the next Soul Mods Baron extravaganza. Tuesday night saw Graz takes the decks at the AAi to deliver a two hour modfest and the boy done good. Some great tunes played a real fun atmosphere that had the floor bouncing. Another great night of virtual entertainment. Sadly my time at both these gigs was cut short by real life stuff but the hour or so I spent at each of them illustrated there is still fantastic mod sets out there if you teleport yourself along to the correct venues.

Second Life Modernist

Its a Mod's Second Life

Well after a stumbling debut on the Free Finds for Men Blog I thought I might try a touch of inane second life warbling here on a blog of my own creation. No mean feat considering my feeble technical skills and inate luddite tendencies. What should you expect, a raft of typos grammarical errors [did you spot that one] and a considerable pile of fashion waffle; modernist diatribes, and musical polemics.

Do not expect to much if you discover this piece of self indulgence I lack both talent and imagination so it will limp along while it holds my enthusiam but will undoubted slip into the mire that most blogs are by nature condemned to inhabit.

Why mods, because its my youth, neomods of the nineteen eighties a chance to be reborn in Second Life, relive desperate moments at the Casino [pre-mod revivalism]; remember moonstomping ska filled school discos and rejoice in a Jam filled bedroom of classic sixties cuts and energetic young mod bands. Can you relive such a youth? Well the scooters are there, a few clubs too. The clothes can be rooted out and if you're clever [which I am not, hey its not self deprecation just blind honesty,,technical computer stuff confuses me] you can produce your own.